Smaller pro indoor league

spider
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Smaller pro indoor league

Post by spider » Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:06 am

What about a smaller pro indoor lax league? A league for mid to small markets would be great.

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preeths
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Post by preeths » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:38 pm

There had been talk about NLL2, but I'm not sure where that stands.

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Post by dmbishop » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:17 pm

Well, I think that the biggest problem would be the dilution of talent and how to pay the players in small-mid markets. As it is, the average NLL salary is in the $10000-$15000 range per season. I would guess that a minor lacrosse league would be either semi-pro or the players would have to be paid in the range of the ABA.

As for leagues like NLL2... A number of NLL players go outside in the summer to play in the MLL or go back to Canada for the Pro LAX Summer Leagues (which the NLL uses for evaluation / development) so the need for a minor league is low.

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Post by Pounder » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:50 pm

NLL just announced their intention to start an outdoor league.

http://test.denverpost.com/lacrosse/ci_4939249

Always remember: intent is one thing, execution another.

That could go either way. If the outdoor league is successful, they might begin to get suitors to pay for NLL2.

Of course, the NLL outdoor raises its own set of questions. Will they try to merge with MLL? Will competition with MLL drive everything out of whack? What happens to current NLL/MLL dual citizens?

The, um, "fun" is just beginning.

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Why does that stink?

Post by sportsguy12 » Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:58 pm

[quote=""Blizzard4644""]That sinks, Indoor Lacrosse is so much more fun to watch[/quote]

They are going to keep expanding the Indoor League. And they are starting an outdoor league.

They're not switching from indoor to outdoor. The NLL will have both an indoor and outdoor league. That is good news for lacrosse buffs.

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Post by dmbishop » Sat Jan 06, 2007 4:05 am

This is slightly unrelated, as I think that the NLL is the best run 'small-sports' league...

But do you remember that during the heyday of the MISL, as the NASL was dying, the NASL tried to start an indoor league? They figured that the people would want to see the 'real' soccer teams and players in indoor venues. I think that experiment lasted one season as they didn't realize the the fans of the outdoor game weren't the same as the indoor game. As a side note, the formally-great Cosmos actually finished their franchise life by moving from the NASL to the MISL and died after about half a season in the Garden.

I don't think that this will be the same, but I do hope that the NLL isn't making a similar mistake.

Dave

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Post by Sykotyk » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:36 am

I think it all depends on how they go about marketing it. My guess is this is more a fight with the MLL than a true attempt to make themselves a year-round entity. A merger or a takeover will most likely result of the MLL if the NLL's plan is to succeed. I don't think two leagues running side by side in this sport at a 'major' level, be it as it may, would work for long.

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Post by Dan K » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:54 am

On 1/2/07 Arena Digest [www.arenadigest.com] had a link to a canada.com article about NLL expansion into Salt Lake City next year and mentioned that the league was considering a return to Vancouver or Victoria. This got into talking about the Western Lacrosse Association's Victoria Shamrocks as a possible "farm team" in the NLL-2. The article went on to say that six current NLL owners are interested in starting an outdoor league and it would drain indoor players from the WLA and Ontario Lacrosse Association. The NLL wants to develop a farm system (NLL-2), but its first priority is getting an outdoor league started.

The NLL-2 was originally mentioned in early 2001 for a possible 2003 start. The NLL held a pre-season game at The Mark in the Quad Cities in November 2004 to gauge interest in a smaller market and 2006 was mentioned as a possible start for a minor league. This of course has been pushed back.

I have some copies of message board postings that I think are from OSC back in late 2001 and early 2002 about the American Indoor Lacrosse League (AILL). The AILL was to be a minor lacrosse league with teams in Wichita, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Memphis (Moose) and Shreveport (Psychos). The league was to start in 2003, but I never saw a web site or any other info on the league since.

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